Trump's tease of possible Comey tapes fits familiar pattern


              FILE - In this April 21, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in the Oval Office in Washington. An answer is expected this week to the question that has transfixed Washington: does President Trump have secret recordings of his conversations with ex-FBI Director James Comey? (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
FILE - In this April 21, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in the Oval Office in Washington. An answer is expected this week to the question that has transfixed Washington: does President Trump have secret recordings of his conversations with ex-FBI Director James Comey? (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) - Donald Trump said he had a secret.

He teased it on Twitter. He parried reporters' questions about it. He milked the moment, drawing out the drama for weeks.

That was in 2011, when Trump promised to unveil what his private investigators had found in Hawaii about President Barack Obama's birth certificate. Trump never did reveal anything new.

Now, that high-stakes guessing game has been replicated in the White House, with Trump's hint that he has secret recordings of his conversations with fired FBI Director James Comey.

An answer is expected this week about whether or not the tapes exist. And the drama fits a familiar pattern of Trump making outsized claims, which frequently don't pan out.

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